Symptomatic
by fieryu
Summary: There is not enough sonic out there, so here is my offering.  Nick realises he is sick, love sick corny!.  He tries to ask Sofia out. Bad summary I know but I don't want to give to much away.
1. Symptoms

It had been a lot of years since his last 'episode' but Nick Stokes remembered the symptoms well.

He was fairly sure they must be very similar to the clinical signs of insanity, because he certainly felt like he was losing his mind. He silently checked off the growing list of symptoms as he walked from the lab at the end of a frustrating day.

Pounding heartbeat

Missing chunks of time

Loss of ability to speak or even form a cohesive thought

Laughing or smiling at inappropriate times

Easily distracted

They occurred randomly and in all kinds of situations – there was only one constant through out every episode, he had finally admitted to himself. It took a fairly embarrassing new symptom before he recognized what should have been clear weeks ago.

He had recently caught himself sniffing the hair of a certain someone, could he be more stalker like he'd asked himself.

But what was worse is that the result of this latest symptom was that he suddenly had a craving for cinnamon and an overwhelming desire to pick violets.

He was putting cinnamon in and on everything he ate or drank, the final straw was the look Warwick gave him when he requested it in his coffee.

It was time to do something about it. There was only one cure for this – it could be totally humiliating or the start of something amazing. He ignored the annoying little voice in his head screaming warnings with increasing shrillness; he was committed to this course of action.

With a deep breath and a silent prayer/plea to any and all gods who might be listening, he pushed the door to the break room open and stepped in.

The first thing he noticed was he was beginning to sweat big time, was this a new symptom or a side effect of the treatment he wasn't sure, but if he didn't move quickly he would soon dehydrate and possibly pass out. Secondly he realized he was standing there imitating a goldfish, mouth opening and closing but nothing else was happening, he was also frozen to the spot. 'Move' he yelled to himself, 'you're not 16, you are starting to look like an idiot'. As he stood silently berating himself he failed to notice that he was being watched. When he finally focused on his target he found she was watching him with a very amused look on her face.

"Hey!" Sofia said, "You Okay!"

"Hunh! Oh yeah, I just, I umm…" Nick froze again in horror, 'I can't believe what a mess I'm making of this' he thought, 'I guess were shooting for humiliating.'

"Sorry, bad day." He finally offered as he rubbed his hands over his closely shaved head.

Sofia beamed at him "You're not alone, nothing has gone right for me today." She closed the file she had been staring at without focus for ten minutes at least. She could not absorb another word.

"I was thinking of getting a coffee, did you want one?" he asked

"Yeah, I'd love one, I can make it if you want to sit down, you look like you need to."

"What! No! I mean… not here, I meant out, like a coffee place." Nick was amazed that the gods had not taken pity on him and struck him down yet. This could not be going any worse than if he was actually trying for disaster.

"Oh!" Sofia stopped half way out of her chair; she was so startled by Nick's awkwardness at asking a simple question. She suddenly realized this was more than a request for coffee. The usually unflappable Nick Stokes, self-professed ladies man was bumbling like a love struck teenager. She smiled secretly to herself and sank back into the seat. "I like the sound of that, I need to get out of this place." She offered casually, and she began to collect her things. "Let me file these and I'll be back."

As the door closed quietly behind Sofia, Nick sank, boneless into the nearest chair. He was exhausted; he had no idea how he had actually ended up with a positive response. It definitely couldn't have anything to do with his actions, a thought which had his brain whirring. There is no way that she wouldn't recognize his clumsy request as anything less than what it was, his blundering had made it clear he was asking her on a date. It could mean one of two things, Sofia was taking pity on him for now and would let him down gently later or she was genuinely interested in coffee with him, under the heading of 'date'. He tried not to analyze it too much, using the time instead to regain some composure.

Too soon the door was opening again and Sofia was ready to go, coat on and bag in hand she smiled at Nick. "So where to?" she asked.

"There's a little Mom and Pop café three blocks north of here on Dublin." He replied as he stood and picked up his own jacket.

"I know the one." Sofia smiled again, "I'll follow you there."

……………………………………………….

Seems like a good spot to stop. So what do you think so far? I will start the next installment soon as I am currently on holidays it is the only time I can write. Once I'm back at work there will be a rather large hiatus, so I will try to get as much done now as I can. Also I am prone to losing interest when things go wrong in the real world – i.e. If Sofia's character doesn't return or either of them ends up in another relationship. (See my NCIS story as proof – I will try to get back to it but when Tony is so smitten by Jeanne it's hard to find inspiration.)

Also hope this makes sense. I'm Australian, so I may use slightly different language and I have no idea of the geography in Las Vegas – is a small independent coffee shop even possible? Also I don't drink coffee so know very little about the associated 'rituals'. I know North Americans use North, East etc. for directions, in Australia we turn left or right – very limiting but we get where we are going. I will completely make up the small details and even maybe some big ones later on.


	2. Smiles

And I thought two weeks of holidays without money would be such a drag, but I'm getting into this writing thing.

Now I realize that I'm probably way off character for both Nick and Sofia, but thanks to TPTB at Channel 9 here in Oz, it is hard to get an accurate read of them as we only get two or so episodes at a time and then it disappears for weeks, only to return stealthily, very hard to keep up.

Hope you enjoy this installment it's kind of cheesy, the melted, gooey kind.

On automatic pilot Nick pulled out of the parking lot, checking his rear vision mirror as he did. Sofia was close behind but all he could see of her was one shoulder as she wrestled with something on the other side of the car. Her head popped up to meet his gaze; she tried to smile around a mouthful of marshmallows – her secret guilty pleasure. If not for the crinkling around her eyes and the twinkle in them, the expression on her lips would have been rather frightening Nick mused.

Eyes back on the road Nick quickly made his way to the coffee shop – parking in a small lot next door. He waited for Sofia to pull in beside him, hoping that his earlier nerves were gone and that he could manage to behave normally.

Nick reached for Sofia's car door and held it open for her as she collected all the essentials: coat, phone, pager and bag. "So are you going to share?" he inquired.

Sofia's 'busted' smile spread to a laugh as she reached over and grabbed the bag of marshmallows from the glove box, she offered the bag to Nick who carefully picked out two white ones.

"I would not have picked you as a soft and fluffy candy lover." He teased: "you seem more of a hard boiled candy kind of girl."

Sofia's smile was puzzled not sure whether to take offense or not, then confessed: "supposed to be no calories and filling at the same time, good in emergencies."

"Aahh, but tonnes of sugar" Nick laughed in response.

With a shrug Sofia answered "Keeps my Dentist in business" as she popped one more into her mouth and smiled broadly.

As Nick reached for the shop door, he marveled at the number of different smiles Sofia had beamed his way in the last half hour, he remembered reading somewhere that 18 types of smiles had been identified. He was sure Sofia must have been one of the research subjects.

As they entered the shop Nick placed his hand at the small of her back, barely touching, but enough to guide her towards the far corner booth.

"Cosy!" Sofia smiled approvingly as she looked around.

And another one Nick noted to himself. Though the shop was almost full it was surprisingly quiet, everyone spoke in hushed voices, music was barely there in the background, the lighting was muted and there was no rushing around, it was exactly what they both needed after a hectic day. They both sighed as they sank into the deep comfy cushions of the booth.

"What a relief." Sofia exhaled "I may not be able to get up again, but this is perfect" she smiled gratefully at Nick.

He returned the sentiment through a tired smile of his own. "This place is great for forgetting how tiresome and frustrating your day may have been, I'm sure there is some magic at work here."

"Now there's a surprise, scientist Nick Stokes professing a belief in magic." Sofia smiled teasingly.

Nick laughed at himself and continued, "You wait and see; once you wrap your hands around one of their warm coffee mugs you will have forgotten the world outside exists."

They both looked up as the most Grandmotherly looking old lady appeared beside their table.

"You look beat, Nicky," she stated with concern. Nick watched as Sofia's eyebrows raised and another smile spread across her face. 'Holy cow' he thought to himself, how many more did she have tucked away in that so innocent looking face of hers. As enchanted as he was it didn't stop him giving her a not so gentle nudge under the table. Which only increased the size of the smile. He turned to Maise.

"Maise, you have no idea! But here in your little piece of heaven it's almost forgotten."

'Flirt' Sofia mouthed across the table.

"Hhmm, I don't know that I can take the credit today, Nicky" Maise teased, shifting her eyes to Sofia. The pink in Nick's cheeks deepened as he introduced the two and they placed their orders.

"So! come here often, Nicky?" Sofia smirked with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

Nick nodded in response, temporarily speechless at how his name sounded coming from her lips. He liked it a lot; there were very few people who could get away with calling him Nicky. He was also amazed at how natural and relaxed they had become, after the awkwardness back at work he was sure this would be a disaster. They both spent some time quietly checking out the room, cop's instinct. When they turned back to face each other Sofia smiled with a hint of nervousness.

"10!" Nick said in wonder

"What?" Sofia asked.

"Hunh, oohh, did I say that out loud." Nick exclaimed.

………………………………………………………

Not so sure about this chapter, I'm a little embarrassed. All that smile stuff became a little too much, but I enjoyed the challenge, I've finding different ways to describe them. And 18 is a fact – there's some useless trivia for when you are next stuck for conversation.


	3. story

Two updates in one day – tells you something about my life hey, Monday night and zero on the TV, pouring rain and windy outside, also I couldn't stop thinking about how Nick was going to get out of this one – hope it's not to lame – enjoy.

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"Yes you did, you said 10, why?"

"It's um… it's silly, not worth losing time to the telling of such a crazy story. It's a long, silly and boring story, I'm more interested in this marshmallow addiction you seem to have."

"Unh, Unh, no changing the subject, this is the perfect time and place for a long story, spill it." Sofia demanded.

"Really it's so uninteresting, you'll kick yourself for making such a big deal about it." Nick was desperately trying to stall, he had no idea what to say, until inspiration literally stood up in front of him, and a story began to form in his head.

"I'm not the one who has broken out in a sweat, Nicky. Come on start talking, you'll feel better once you've told the truth, it's good for the soul."

"I'm starting to feel like a suspect, you are off duty you know?" Nick complained, Sofia simply leaned back into the couch and stared at him.

"Okay. This is so ridiculous. See that lady walking to the door, the one with frizzy red hair. Well I see her here a lot and awhile a go she wore this very unflattering woolen hat; it's bright green with small stuffed toy cats tied with various colored ribbons around the brim like a band. And there are brooches pinned all over the hat, of birds and plastic flowers standing out in every direction – you sure you want me to continue." Nick paused, Sofia only nodded and smiled encouragingly, Nick bit his tongue quickly and then continued. "Okay so at the time I thought surely she is wearing it as a gag – she must have lost a bet or something – but then I saw her a few weeks later wearing it again and I don't know why but I started to kind of… umm…. notice how often she wore it and well today it's the tenth time I've seen it." Nick finished with an exasperated breath – if he could kick himself he would be black and blue right now. He raised his eyes to look at her; she was still watching the woman.

"But…" she started to say, when the woman raised her hands and placed the hat in question on her head and tied it under her chin, with a red ribbon with small white Scottie dogs all over it.

"Oh, yeah did I forget to mention the ribbon." Nick added, with a verbal flourish. 'Oh my God! Stop! You idiot' he mentally kicked himself.

Sofia looked from the woman to Nick and back again until she disappeared from view. Then her disbelieving look settled on Nick. Nick could see the war going on in her head as she decided whether to believe him or not – it was a short one – she looked one more time at the door then back at Nick and her face broke out into a knowing grin, which rapidly rolled into laughter.

"No way, I'm not buying that ridiculous story."

"Come on, I did warn you – it's the truth and you well know the truth is often absurd."

"In an interrogation you can fudge the truth and trap desperate suspects with clever words, but after-hours you are hopeless at lying, you have to many tells." She teased

"I do not, there are no tells here, I'm telling the truth." Nick tried, sinking back into his seat.

"Hah! No tells? Let me list them: first the sweat as I mentioned earlier, second the look of desperation and fear written all over your face, third the amount of detail in your story – overkill. Finally the absolute give away, when you finished your story you crossed your fingers.

"What!" Nick spluttered. "I did not!" as he unconsciously looked to his hands and moved them off the table and placed them in his lap, out of sight, sealing his guilt in the process.

Sofia continued with the knowing smile "Sprung big time" she accused "Now fess up, time to tell the truth, it must be truly mortifying if you tried to cover with such an unbelievable story."

Nick clamped his lips shut and shook his head from side to side. "No you are a ruthless audience, I'm not telling you a thing."

Sofia was about to plead some more when Maise returned with their drinks and a plate of home-baked choc-chip cookies. After placing the plate on the table, she peered into Nick's face and patted him softly on the cheek. "You sure you are okay, Nicky you look very troubled."

Nick nodded glumly and thanked Maise.

As she turned to leave, Maise gave Sofia a knowing wink and a smile of encouragement.

Sofia looked back at Nick, who had stuffed half a cookie into his mouth, desperate for any excuse not to talk. She smiled sweetly and took a sip of her drink, she was startled at how good it tasted and felt, as it seemed to spread throughout her body, relaxing tired muscles and reviving her fuzzy brain, maybe there was something magical about this place she conceded. Though it was clearly not on Nick's side he was like a deer in the headlights at the moment, she decided to keep pushing.

"Okay, I am not saying another word until you speak the truth." She threatened Nick. She moved the plate closer to herself and picked up a cookie. She calmly sipped at her drink and nibbled on the cookie, without taking her eyes off Nick.

He squirmed under the attention but was determined he could win at this, he was the youngest of seven; he knew a thing or two about manipulation and mind games. He tried to sit calmly but after twenty minutes of intense scrutiny and silence, he was becoming very uncomfortable, he was in trouble, it seemed he was back to a humiliating end to his 'cure'. He looked around desperately for help, it was a man in a top hat that came to his rescue, and he excused himself and almost bolted for the sanctuary of the men's restroom.

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I've reached the point where I know this is so bad, that I can't wait to see if it can possibly get any worse. But I'm enjoying writing it, so hope you are enjoying reading it – even if it is just to laugh at the appalling writing. I'm telling myself I'm just warming up.


	4. serendipity

Final chapter: Serendipity – corny name but sticking with the theme of 's' was hard work.

Nick paced the restroom mumbling to himself and repeatedly slapping his forehead. Nothing of his behavior over the last hour seemed familiar to him. He was usually great at the pick up and flirting stage of a 'relationship', how could he be so bad when it was someone he already had an established relationship with he questioned. He had already prepared himself for that aspect; he knew it would be difficult to go from colleague and friend to something more.

He realized he had stopped seeing Sofia as just one of the guys a long time ago. That shining moment came when the sight of her with a shotgun, didn't provoke the usual professional response of confidence in a colleague but rather the thought 'God she looks hot! Right now.' This didn't mean he wasn't also confident in her abilities; he had a lot of respect for Sofia as a policewoman and former CSI. She was a strong, independent woman; actually she was the anti-thesis of every woman he had ever pursued before. That was the problem, he didn't want to go about this the way he normally would, he had gone in overconfident thinking it would be an easy modification to his usual strategy, but he was so far out of his comfort zone, Sofia deserved so much more than that.

Suddenly he knew what he had to do, he walked to the taps splashed water over his face and dried off with a paper towel. Looking into the mirror he took a deep breath and readied himself to come clean, to tell the whole truth.

He walked confidently from the restroom and stopped beside the table, he noticed that in the time he was gone Sofia had reduced two cookies to crumbs – minus the choc chips, a serviette to shreds and her coffee sat untouched. He slid into the couch beside her, nudging her thigh with his knee he sat facing her.

"Okay for the record I'm now up to 12 and what I'm counting is each different smile you have smiled in the last hour."

Sofia was stunned speechless and smile less, her mouth opened and closed a few times before she regained control and was able to form words.

"Who are you?" she breathed, "The Nick Stokes I know is a confident flirt, a self professed ladies man – not this, this soppy 'smile counting' sap. You have barely put an intelligent sentence together since you walked into the break room. Are you telling me that it's my fault, me and my smile have charmed you that much?"

It was Sofia's turn to be completely off-guard. She was almost jumping out of her skin, most men did not notice her smiles – they barely got past the fact she was a cop, who had an indentation on her hip from her gun. She had liked Nick Stokes from their first meeting; she could not believe that he had taken off his 'I work with her and she's a cop' tinted glasses. Wow!

He reached out for her hand, catching her pinkie finger between his index finger and thumb, he caressed her palm with his thumb, both became mesmerized by the motion for a few beats before Nick took a deep breath and started to talk.

"I will admit it took me awhile to get past the fact you were a colleague. I have always admired and respected you and how you do your job, I admire how you worked through some tough transitions with little to no support from your colleagues. Everything you put your mind to you do well and with the utmost professionalism. You are strong, independent and determined. Recently I became …aahh, let's say curious to see if you are as tough after-hours, if for example I was to call you sweetie would you knock me down and cuff me or snuggle in closer."

"You snuggle?" Sofia asked incredulous.

Nick laughed and retaliated with "Hey we have already established I'm not myself right now, forget you heard that." He looked up into Sofia's eyes, "seriously, I like you, and I want to know off duty Sofia Curtis, everything there is to know I want to discover. I have never bumbled through a first date so badly, which tells me how much I want this to work out."

Sofia smiled reassuringly "Well you couldn't have done to badly you got the girl in the end" and with that she brushed a soft kiss across his lips and pulled back slowly to look into his eyes.

"14" Nick whispered as he leant forward and barely touched his lips to hers.

"1" Sofia countered with, before sealing any hint of space between their lips.

………………………………………………………

Wow I actually finished a story. Silly, light fluff – hope you enjoyed. I'm going to go and try my hand at angst now, my favourite.


End file.
